Are you eating a bowlful of sugar for breakfast?

Health conscious consumers should take a closer look at the nutrition panel of their favourite cereal to avoid often alarmingly high sugar levels that could be jeopardising health and weight management efforts.

Many consumers are completely unaware that the majority of popular cereals, even the so-called ‘healthy’ brands, are loaded with 20 per cent or more sugar.

With the rising concerns of our country’s obesity epidemic, it’s crucial consumers wise up to the underhanded marketing and half-truths trumpeted by many cereal producers.

Consumers need to actively seek out the complete nutritional picture of their favourite cereals to inform themselves to make genuine health-promoting choices.

Also, don’t be misled by what’s shouted on the front of the pack or highlighted on the nutritional panel. It’s usually because the other nutritional facts are lacking. For example, if a food product is low in fat, there’s a good chance it’s high in sugar (see attached nutritional panel from a leading Australian brand).

A leading, so-called, ‘healthy’ cereal brand

Given sugar’s role in weight gain it defeats the purpose. The entire nutritional panel, including ingredients, is the place to get the facts about what you’re eating.

Compare SuperStart's Nutritional panel

A bowlful of sugar or super healthy cereal?

Health conscious consumers should take a closer look at the nutrition panel of their favourite cereal to avoid often alarmingly high sugar levels that could be jeopardising weight management efforts according to Justin Smidmore of The Metabolic Food Company, producer of SuperStart breakfast blend.

“Many consumers are completely unaware that the majority of popular cereals, even the so-called healthy brands, are loaded with 20 per cent or more sugar,” he says.

“It’s no wonder people are reaching for high calorie snacks mid-morning when you consider the inevitable sugar rush and slump these sugary cereals deliver.”

Even ”real fruit” claims, via the addition of dried fruit, are geared at adding sugary sweetness according to Smidmore.

“Simply adding fresh fruit is a far superior nutritional choice, providing more vitamins and fibre, not to mention the fresh taste,” he says.

With the rising concerns of our country’s obesity epidemic, Smidmore believes it’s crucial consumers wise up to the underhanded marketing and half-truths trumpeted by many cereal producers.

“Consumers need to actively seek out the complete nutritional picture of their favourite cereals to empower themselves to make genuine health-promoting choices,” he advises.

Smidmore’s company is committed to helping Australians lead healthier lives and manage their weight through nutrition. Its SuperStart breakfast blend has no added sugar and just 2.1% of naturally occurring sugar.

SuperStart's nutritional panel

Developed after two years of research, its slow release of energy throughout the morning eliminates the sugar rollercoaster experienced from consuming high-sugar cereals, helping sustain fullness and minimising the need to reach for a high calorie mid-morning snack.

Australian-made SuperStart is distributed throughout Australia in Healthy Life and About Life stores and SureSlim Australia and New Zealand and is available to purchase online at www.metabolicfood.com.au.

Super low sugar SuperStart

PS. Low GI watch-out! Low GI is not a measure of sugar levels. So, while some products may be low GI they may still have high sugar levels. Another reason to check the nutritional panel.

PPS. Special low price on SuperStart – buy a box of 6 and pay just $8.95 per 400g bag.

So what is a low GI Diet anyway?

It’s a diet rich in low GI foods, has a moderate level of medium GI foods and one that avoids high GI foods like the plague.

GI, or Glycemic Index, is the rate of carbohydrate energy release into your bloodstream.

Glucose is your body’s premium fuel and almost all of it is sourced from dietary carbohydrate. However, although all carbs supply glucose, the rate they are digested and then release that glucose into the bloodstream, where it is absorbed, varies a lot.

In short, the higher the GI level, the faster the glucose is released and burned. Not good. For me it explains the old ‘sugar rush’ sensation and that feeling of hunger and craving I get not longer after eating something with a high GI like most breakfast cereals or a chocolate bar.

On the other hand, foods with a low GI level like hazelnuts, pasta, oats, beans, milk and low fat yoghurt, slowly release releasing their carbohydrates. That means they produce only a gentle rise in blood sugar (and a small insulin response), making it easier for your body to maintain it’s optimal blood glucose levels.

OK. Why is a Low GI Diet good for weight loss?

In my humble opinion a low GI diet is the most effective weight loss strategy. That’s because low GI foods are plentiful, good for you and, most of all, keep your hunger satisfied for longer.

A major benefit of a low GI diet slow releasing carbs is, for a given calorie/kilojoule consumed, blood glucose levels are sustained in the ideal range for longer than quick release carbohydrates, high GI are eaten. This delays the pangs of hunger (useful when weight control is your goal).

Where do I start on my low GI diet?

Think fresh food. Think unprocessed food. Think flavour. Think under 55 (any food with a GI level below 55 is consider low GI).

Don’t think snack. Don’t think sugar.

Go for:

Sweet corn 55
Sweet potato 54
Kiwi fruit 53
Carrots 51
Oat bran 50
Mixed grain 49
Peas 48
Grapes 48
Baked beans (tinned) 46
Porridge 46
Pineapple juice 46
Orange 44
Apple juice (clear) 44
Spaghetti (white) 43
Peach 42
Pinto beans 40
Spaghetti (wholemeal) 39
Apple 37
Pear 36
Chickpeas 33
Hazelnuts 33
Yoghurt (low-fat, sweetened) 33
Strawberry 32
Milk (skimmed) 32
Plums 32
Apricot (dried) 30
Banana (unripe) 30
Peanut butter 29
Kidney beans 28
Milk (full fat) 27
Cashews 22
Cherries 22
Peanuts 22
Soya beans 20
Yoghurt (low-fat, unsweetened) 14

And enjoy!

About the author

Justin Smidmore is the owner of The Metabolic Food Company, makers of SuperStart breakfast blend. He likes to give people commonsense information regarding weight loss, weight management and healthy eating. He is quick to add he is not a dietician (he’s not even sure how to spell it) or nutritionist.

Most weight loss plans simply ask too much -  they ask us to tip our lives completely over. We are often asked to make all our meals around highly processed foods that we didn’t select, cook, or even choose. Someone else make all of these decisions for us. No wonder most diets are not maintained, goals aren’t met and weight put straight back on.

So now what?

The better idea is to look at what you enjoy and work around that, at least to a degree. Eat more of the healthy stuff and less of the unhealthy, weight-increasing stuff.

• Alcohol – no doubt giving up drinking will help shed loads of weight. But some responsible adults enjoy a beer or glass of wine. You gotta enjoy life! So if you normally have a glass of wine a night, make it a glass every second night.
• Breakfast – bulk them up with fresh (or quality canned) fruit. Try low GI cereals which make you feel fuller for longer.
• Coffee and tea - have one less cup a day. Instead of sugar use a natural sweetener like Stevia.
• Snack on almonds and seed mix – sure it’s high in fat but it’s good fat, filling and natural.
• Dessert – instead of ice cream go for low fat yoghurt. Add some of that low GI cereal for texture and added satisfaction.
• Dinner – stir fry your favourite vegetables with lean chicken or beef. Use a herb and spice blend (with no sugar) for flavour boost.
• Carbs – reduce the amount, especially in your breakfast and dinner. Try your stirfry without rice or noodles -you’ll be surprised how easy it is.

These are just a few ideas. Remember the key is to maintain your diet until you reach your goal weight. To do this the diet has to fit into your life, not you into it.

Enjoy!

Eat Less, Eat Better, Move More
Or put another way, if you eat less food and calories, eat better, more nutritious and less processed and sugary food and move your body more you will lose or control your weight.

The general idea
Most diets fail because people can’t/won’t maintain them for long enough. They are either too hard, complicated, faddish, unrealistic, impractical, boring, hyped, over-promising, questionable, costly, time-consuming and ineffective.
Most overweight people, however, do have a good idea of what makes an effective diet. There’s plenty of information in all forms of media.
The Eating Diet program addresses both these insights by offering a method to lose and manage weight that’s realistic, practical, effective and impossible to argue.

Eat less
The Problem: overweight people eat too much for the amount of exercise they do or their basic daily requirements; food is often enhanced with flavours, esp sugar and salt, which only encourages people to eat more than they need.
The Solution: Products and ideas to feel full longer, Low GI, give more flavour to healthy, filling dishes, reduce calorific intake, minimize hi-GI carbs,

Eat Better
The Problem: overweight people more often than not eat food lacking in nutrition…empty calories, junk food, processed food, sugar-stuffed, overly salted, lacking in vitamins, minerals, greasy fast food, fried, fatty.
Often people find nutritious, fresh foods boring, unappealing and unsatisfying. Not morish like fast food.
The Solution: Products and ideas to help people enjoy more nutritious foods more often. But not by just adding sugar or salt or fat to these healthy foods.

Move More
The Problem: if we don’t burn more calories than we consume then we put on weight. Simple as that. Overweight people don’t exercise or just move enough.
The Solution: a simple, easy and doable exercise program, starting with walking.

Walk, walk, walk.

Start off just walking at least 15 minutes a day. That doesn’t include the walking you may do throughout your day. It’s new walking.

Build it up week by week, or quicker if you want to accelerate your weightloss.

Stay tuned for more on less.

About the author. Justin Smidmore is part-owner of The Metabolic Food Company of Booker Bay, New South Wales, Australia, though he’s quick to point out he lives in Bondi.

Justin Smidmore - SuperStart owner and non-nutritionist

Metabolic are makers of SuperStart – super Low GI breakfast blend. SuperStart helps people in Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. to lose and manage their weight by filling them up for longer. So they have less hunger and snack less.Check it out at: metabolicfood.com.au

EatSlim makes diet food taste wicked.

Metabolic also makes the EatSlim range of gourmet herb and spice blends. They make boring diet food taste wicked. Check it out at: www.eatslim.net.au

The purpose of this article is to state the reasons why a Low GI Diet should be considered for you and your family. I should point out that I’m not a GI zealot. Or a zealot of any nutritional point of view. I hope that this shows.

The main reason I support a Low GI Diet is that it is largely supported by most knowledgeable nutritional and diet experts. It also stands up to everyday practicality.

The Case For A Low GI Diet…in no particular order.

1. Low GI, healthy foods release their energy slower and steadier than moderate and high GI foods. Actually Low GI unhealthy foods do as well but we’ll get onto why Low GI doesn’t always mean a healthy option.
   • You’ll notice less slumps, especially the infamous mid-morning and mid afternoon ones.
2. Low GI diet can keep you feeling fuller for longer. The main benefits of this are:
   • less snacking
   • less cravings
3. Low GI Diet products and foods are everywhere. It just takes a little awareness and suddenly the supermarket or grocery aisle becomes full of options. Not all low GI foods are marked as such. A short selection is below. The idea is to demonstrate just how ‘everyday’ a low GI diet is.

Low GI Diet must-haves

• Low GI breakfast with nuts, seeds and grains
• Oats e.g. porridge or natural muesli
• Multi-grain bread
• Pasta
• Low-fat milk and yoghurt
• Most fruit
• Sweet corn
• Sweet potato
• Legumes

Not all Low GI diet foods are created equal.

And not all low GI foods are healthy foods. At first I thought low GI diet also meant low or no sugar. Wrong. In fact, there are some low GI products with loads of sugar. So be wary of these and check the nutritional panel and ingredient list.

Enjoy!

Unlike other diet strategies which end-up being fads, Glycemic Index diets and foods are part of the mainstream nutritional advice for weightloss. Importantly, Low GI is just one of a few ideas to keep in mind when looking to manage weight or be healthy.

The other ideas include ensuring you eat more and more fresh, natural, unprocessed foods and simply move more – get out and about and move your body.

What’s a Low GI Diet?

The glycemic index, or GI, is simply a numerical description how much the carbohydrates in foods affect blood glucose levels (glycemia).

The glycemic index ranks foods from 0 to 100.

Foods with a high GI ranking contain carbohydrates that cause a dramatic rise in blood glucose levels. Foods with a low GI value have carbohydrates with much less impact.

Why GI for weightloss?

Low GI foods have two major advantages for people trying to lose or control their weight:

• They fill you up and keep you satisfied for longer than high GI foods.
• They raise your metabolic rate higher by reducing insulin levels and helping you burn more body fat and less muscle.

These two reasons alone present a great case for low glycemic index diets. Here’s another.

All in good taste

We all know the issue with losing weight isn’t so much with losing weight. It’s keeping it off.

From experience, most diets, detoxes or diet programs are impossible to maintain over the medium to long term. Just too many rules and not much fun.

A Low GI Diet is a yummy way to lose weight

Low GI foods, on the other hand, are easy to find and lovely to eat. For starters:

Low GI foods
All vegetables

Most fruits (only watermelon is high on the glycemic index)

Low fat dairy products

Grainy bread

Medium GI foods
Honey

Basmati rice

Muesli

Case Closed

The closing argument for why a Low GI Diet is right for you is this: these foods will fill you up for longer so you snack less. Do you think snacking less will help you lose weight?

Enjoy!

Why is a Low GI Diet a good diet?

So, the idea is to switch from high GI carbs, especially the processed ones, to eating mainly low GI carbs. These carbs will slowly trickle glucose into your blood stream which keeps your energy levels balanced and means you will feel fuller for longer.

Snack Stop.

The simple, but admittedly hard, act of not snacking will help your weight loss or management no end. Snacking in-between meals is OK…in moderation and with healthy foods.

Hitting a mid-morning ‘sugar-low’ wall? Pumping your body with empty calories by ripping off the cookie jar or downing a mocha is not OK. OK?!?

Seriously, if you eat well – healthy amount, low GI, natural – you shouldn’t need to snack. Most snacking is habit anyway. If you do find yourself feeling full enough but craving a snack, do something to take your mind off it. Go for a walk. Play with the kids. Read the paper. Bake cookies. Actually, not the last one.

Enjoy these Low GI Diet ideas.

Enjoy a breakfast cereal based on barley, oats and bran. Avoid high carb, sugary cereals.

Enjoy sweet potatoes. Reduce the amount of potatoes.

Enjoy pasta and noodles. Try quinoa.

Enjoy stone-ground flour, sour dough, wholegrain breads. Avoid white bread.

Enjoy plenty of salad vegetables with vinaigrette dressing.

Enjoy all other types of fruit and vegetables.

Enjoy Basmati or Doongara rice. Avoid other white rice styles.

Enjoy!

HIGHER GI

Corn Flakes, no particular brand

White rice

White bread

Rice Cakes

Ice Cream

French fries

LOW GI

SuperStart with low fat milk

Brown rice

Soy and linseed wholemeal bread

Nuts and seed muesli bar

Yoghurt

Sweet potato

Word of warning – not all GI foods are created equal
Some low GI foods are high in sugar and of poor nutritional value. That’s the trick for young players. Unlike some other low GI foods, SuperStart is highly nutritious. The high quality, natural ingredients deliver a wealth of lipids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. And, there’s just 2.1% sugar, all occurring naturally in the ingredients.

Buy 6 packs and save
$8.95 per bag for 6 or more 400g packs.
That’s just $1.28 per 50g serve (including delivery). Plus, think of the money you’ll save by snacking less.

One low delivery price Australia-wide. And we take international orders.

Sincerely,

Justin Smidmore

The Metabolic Food Company

PS. KickStart your busy day with super low GI SuperStart breakfast cereal.

Making a low GI diet part of your lifestyle is a lot easier than you think and you need not sacrifice all of your favorite meals. In fact, only a little moderation and modification is needed in most foods you are used to eating to get that GI diet ball of yours rolling.

Now why should you follow a low GI diet?
Let us first examine what a low GI diet is.  A glycemic index reflects the level of sugar or glucose, and carbohydrates in ones’ body at a given time. It use to be thought that only hypoglycemics and diabetics needed to watch their GI count, but now we know that it is healthy for everyone to try and help maintain a low GI diet.
High GI foods release sugars into the bloodstream quicker than low GI foods with a resulting ‘surge’ of energy, usually followed by a energy ‘slump’. Low GI foods sustain their energy release over a longer time. Importantly, this longer release helps people feel satisfied from their meals for longer. And less hunger and food cravings is why so many people looking to lose weight find success with a low GI diet.

You should follow a low GI diet as part of your healthy lifestyle because along with exercise and other healthy eating habits it can help you achieve a healthier day-to-day life and also decrease your chance of heart attack, stroke and even developing blood glucose related diseases and conditions later in life. A low GI diet is not complicated, it does not require supplements or following a wacky plan of eating only grapefruit for a week. Instead what it does is work with your body in a natural and safe manner to assure you have a much healthier life.

When planning how to eat a more healthier low GI diet, keep in mind the best low GI foods are not processed after creation with additives, food dyes, sugar or salt. A good example of that would be nuts like peanuts, cashews or almonds. They have some of the lowest GI counts of any food, (that is per pound not because they are so tiny themselves), but when you buy nuts with oodles of salt added or baked in sugary substances their GI number triples. So keep that in mind on your track to your new low GI diet as well.

Also remember to keep realistic goals and keep plenty of support from friends and family and good luck changing your life!

Enjoy!